The present invention is related to an AM simulcast broadcast signal combining a digital transmission signal and an analogue transmission signal in one transmission channel, a method to generate such a signal, and an AM simulcast broadcast signal generator embodying said method.
DRM (Digital Radio Mondeal) is a digital service in the broadcasting bands below 30 MHz. A simultaneous transmission of the conventional analogue and the new digital service will simplify and accelerate the introduction of the DRM system, since listeners of the analogue service are not lost during the introduction of DRM.
Basically, a simulcast technology is already known for AM bands. The first known possibility is to use a half channel analogue DSB (Double Sideband Modulation), and a half channel digital DSB. The disadvantage is that audio bandwidth for the analogue signal is reduced by 50%, a crosstalk from the digital half channel to the analogue half channel exists, and existing analogue receivers which do not use modern technology, i.e. which use standard filters, get distorted. The second known possibility is the IBOC (In Band On Channel) system, wherein the digital signal is modulated orthogonal to the unchanged analogue signal. The disadvantage is a significantly increased dynamic range which is required in the digital receiver, that crosstalk from the analogue signal to the digital signal and vice versa exists, and that the digital and the analogue systems get distorted.